"Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

War on Terrorism

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Transition, Progress Mark Commander’s Year in Afghanistan

By Claudette Roulo

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Mar. 6, 2014 – The period since February 2013
can best be characterized as a year of transition for Afghanistan’s Regional
Command Southwest, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Walter Lee Miller Jr. said today at a
Pentagon news briefing.

Miller, former commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary
Force said that when he arrived in Helmand province early last year as
commander of Regional Command Southwest, combat was still part of the equation
for the International Security Force there.

“At the beginning, our mission placed emphasis on the
transfer of lead security,” the general said. This meant slowly transitioning
the involvement of ISAF troops from operations at the battalion and district
level to advising at the provincial and regional level, he added.

The handover to Afghan-led security occurred nationally June
19. Miller said the second half of the deployment was focused on preparing for
the April 2014 Afghan elections, furthering the transfer of lead security
responsibility and continuing to develop Afghan governance -- particularly in
the provinces of Helmand and Nimruz.

In addition, he said, retrograde and redeployment operations
continued throughout the year, as ISAF shut down bases and infrastructure.

“I'm extremely proud of the coalition as a whole in the
support of these efforts,” the general said. “But there still remains a significant
challenge, and that is how, within force limitations, do we ensure long-term
sustainment with irreversible [Afghan governmental] gains and prevent
degradation in [Afghan security force] capabilities after ISAF's eventual
departure?”

There’s no doubt that the Taliban senior leaders are seeking
ways to disrupt the April elections, said Miller’s former deputy, British Army
Brigadier Paul A.E. Nanson.

“Helmand's slightly different, because we believe the
Taliban will still be focused at that time of the year on the poppy – because,
of course the poppy harvest time is April -- at the same time as they're going
to try and do whatever they can to disrupt the elections. So I think they're
going to be torn in two ways,” Nanson said. The poppy harvest yields opium for
the illicit drug trade, which the Taliban uses as a revenue source.

There will still be disruptions, Nanson said, but the Afghan
security forces are up to the challenge.

The Taliban are looking to target the physical security of
the election sites and the ability of people to move freely, Nanson said, and
also to target key political and government officials. However, the security
preparations by Afghan forces, particularly at the region’s more than 200
polling stations, have been very thorough, he noted.

“[The Afghan forces] are very confident that they're going
to pull off the election,” Miller added. “And not only that, the local populace
is showing signs that they're confident that the security is going to be there
and they're going to vote.”

The true challenge remaining in Afghanistan is not whether
Afghan security forces can fight, he said, but whether they can sustain
themselves over the long haul.

“They still need a lot of work. … Not so much in training
mechanics -- it's a lot about getting parts from Point A to Point B, and then
being able to [install] those parts,” he said.

ISAF recognized the need to shift from combat mentoring to
sustainability and logistics mentoring, Nanson said, but the effort was started
“quite late,” and it will take more time to guarantee an enduring institutional
framework is in place.

Developing sustainability within the Afghan security forces
is a focus at all levels, said British Army Col. Baz Bennett, former director
of Afghan security force assistance in Regional Command Southwest.

For the Afghan military as a whole, that means
“understanding how to manage a vehicle fleet, manage … billions of dollars of
infrastructure that's been given to them, managing the electricity, [and]
managing the plumbing that's going to go with all of that,” Bennett said.

At the next level down, he said, that might include
providing driver training to ensure that vehicles aren’t breaking so often or
instructing drivers on how to perform daily maintenance. And, Bennett said,
fostering an “equipment care culture,” which instills troops with the awareness
that they can’t defeat the enemy without well-cared-for equipment.

“These are the areas that we've got to keep working on. When
you add in the things such as very low literacy rate, that's very difficult,”
he said.

The Afghan security forces are also working to develop an
operation and deployment cycle, Nanson said. “At the moment … a young soldier
will come out of training. He'll get posted to Helmand province. … He'll go
into combat. And he'll stay in combat.”

If he’s lucky, the brigadier said, that soldier will get
leave at some point in his enlistment, but for many, there is no break. And, he
said, the grueling pace means that the Afghan army loses a significant number
of soldiers to “wastage,” meaning they don’t return from leave.

“What we're trying to do is get them into a cycle, where …
obviously, they have to go into combat, but then they get an opportunity to go
on R&R,” Nanson said. “… And then, when they come back, they get some reset
training. So they get a bit of refresher training, develop their skills a bit
more, get more kit. And then they go back into the fight.”

Establishing that cycle is fundamental to addressing the
problem of wastage, he said.

The Afghan security forces are going to come out on top,
Miller said.

“And they're going to buy the space for the government to
become popular with the locals. That's going to happen. They just need the
time. It's not a McDonald's society, it's the East. Don't forget it. It's not
the West. It will take time, but they'll get there.”

“Where it really lies now is with the Afghan people,” the
general said. “We gave them the tools. We taught them how to use them. It's up
to them. If they want to come out of this on top, they will.”